history of britain in numbers

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Tue Mar 3 12:31:58 GMT 2015, Jim web wrote:

Hi again, Jim!

> This does successfully get me a 'default' labelled
> The meaning of 'default' seems to have changed!

"default" refers to the "version" of the episode,
not the "mode" (quality/bitrate) of it!
 Most radio programmes have only the "default"
version available, in contrast to TV, where more
versions could be available for a particular programme
(e.g. signed, audiodescribed etc.).
If you want to learn more about GiP, please run

get_iplayer --helplong > "Long Help 2.91.txt"

and "study" the text file created inside your
GiP installation folder - if the file can't be written
there for permissions issues, point the script to
save it elsewhere where your account has write
priviledges.

> However, the file is noticable smaller than the others
> (14 meg versus 33meg) and is only 130 kbps
> rather than 320 kbps.
> Can someone explain how I ensure I get the ~320 kbps version?

If you use the -i switch prior to downloading,
GiP would inform you of the available (radio)modes.

For the 27/02 ep., with pid=b053c3pd,

get_iplayer --type=radio -i --pid=b053c3pd

produces (from a UK IP):

modes:          default: 
flashaaclow1,flashaaclow2,flashaacstd1,flashaacstd2,hls
aacstd1,rtspaaclow1,rtspaaclow2,rtspaacstd1,rtspaacstd2
modesizes:      default: 
flashaaclow1=5MB,flashaaclow2=5MB,flashaacstd1=13MB,fla
shaacstd2=13MB,hlsaacstd1=13MB,rtspaaclow1=5MB,rtspaaclow2=5MB,rtspaacstd1=13MB,
rtspaacstd2=13MB

What YOU get is one of the flashaacstd modes, sized 13MB.

In contrast, the ep. of 26/02 with pid=b053bsfw yields (from a UK IP):

get_iplayer --type=radio -i --pid=b053bsfw

modes:          default: 
flashaaclow1,flashaaclow2,flashaaclow3,flashaacstd1,fla
shaacstd2,flashaacstd3,hlsaachigh1,hlsaacstd1,rtspaaclow1,rtspaaclow2,rtspaacstd
1,rtspaacstd2
modesizes:      default: 
flashaaclow1=5MB,flashaaclow2=5MB,flashaaclow3=5MB,flas
haacstd1=13MB,flashaacstd2=13MB,flashaacstd3=32MB,hlsaachigh1=32MB,hlsaacstd1=32
MB,rtspaaclow1=5MB,rtspaaclow2=5MB,rtspaacstd1=13MB,rtspaacstd2=13MB

In the UK you get the flashaacstd3 mode, sized 32MB. This is because
GiP by default tries to fetch the highest available quality.

> Or have the BBC also dropped the quality for the last episode
> so this is as good as that gets?

>From my previous layman's terms analysis, this would then be a YES!

NB: This is a speech only show; AAC-LC at 320 (and even 128) kbps
is - if you ask me - a total waste of bandwidth/disk space!
For comparison, try to fetch the flashaaclow mode by running:

get_iplayer --type=radio --pid=b053c3pd --modes=flashaaclow --force

It is a ~ 4MB .m4a file that sounds quite fine for spoken audio
content (that is if your software/hardware player supports the
HE-AACv1 profile...).

Kind regards,
Vangelis.